The 4th of July 2022

This year, I'm celebrating our nation's birth with two of the most patriotic superheroes ever created: Captain America and the Shield.

Technically, the Shield was the first to be published with a cover date of January 1940, with the good Captain coming along with a cover date of March 1940.

Both have extraordinary physical powers and both are really smart. And, of course, both are living embodiments of our nation's flag.

The Shield lasted until issue 65 of Pep Comics, where he was replaced by a teenager named Archie Andrews. (Archie had been featured in stories since issue 22, but finally took over the comic completely with the 65th issue.)

Cap lasted a bit longer, until his 73rd issue in 1949. He was briefly revived as a "commie-smasher" in the 1950s (with some of the first comic book art by a very young John Romita Sr.), but his revival only lasted a few issues. He didn't really return--for good this time--until Avergers 4, when the team found Cap trapped in an iceberg. The rest, as they say, is history.

I had both of the collected editions pictured above back in the days of La Casa Del Terror. Now? Thanks to my friends at Amazon Marketplace, I have both editions again.

Have a happy and safe holiday, all.

Every Picture Tells a Patriotic Story 7/4/21

Back in 1976, America celebrated its bicentennial in a miriad of ways: Concerts, fireworks displays, TV specials, patriotic movies, toys, etc.

Marvel Comics chose to mark the occasion by having their signature patriotic hero, Captain America, travel through time fighting the good fight in multiple eras in the "treasury"-sized story, Captain America's Bicentennial Battles.

Written and pencilled by Cap's co-creator, Jack Kirby, and inked by a host of Marvel talent (including Incredible Hulk artist Herb Trimpe and Conan the Barbarian penciller Barry Windsor Smith), Bicentennial Battles tells about that one time Cap went bopping around through various historical moments in America's history--from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War to other moments of conflict in our nation's history--at the behest of a mysterious fella named Mr. Buddha.

This isn't exactly a single story as much as it is a series of set pieces for Cap to fight through, all the while gaining a greater understanding/appreciation of how America came to be what it was in 1976.

I had the original Treasury Edition (much larger than a standard comic book, but printed on cheaper paper) back in 1976, along with several others featuring reprints of Spider-Man and the Hulk as well as the occasional original story (Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man was the most prominent of these, being a joint production of Marvel and DC), but lost it along with everything else when I had to abandon La Casa del Terror.

But, like so many other items from that time, I've been able to replace Captain America's Bicentennial Battles with a reissue recently released by Marvel Comics. It cost a bit more than the original, but it's also printed on much nicer, heavier paper than the original was, making it easier to appreciate Kirby's epic artwork.

From me--and, I'm sure, from Cap and Jack as well--I wish you all a happy and safe Independence day.

Every Picture Tells a Patriotic Story 7/3/21

A few shots from 4th of Julys past.

4th of July 2020

Happy 4th of July, everyone. Play safe. (In other words, no explosive devices--not even seemingly innocuous ones like the bottle rocket pictured above.)

The 4th of July 2014

Have a happy and safe Independence Day celebration, all y'all!

4th of July 2013

Every Picture Tells a Story 7/3/13

Sight Seen Sunday

Happy 4th of July!

Every Picture Tells a Story: 7/3/11

Every Picture Tells a Story: 7/2/11

Every Picture Tells a Story: 7/4/10

Every Picture Tells a Story: 7/4/09

Thursday is Bring Even More Patriotic Heroes to Work Day

Since the 4th of July falls on a Saturday this year, we get to have Friday off. And since we have Friday off, Bring Your Action Figure to Work Day moves up one.

As this is America's most patriotic holiday--celebrating, as it does, the signing of the Declaration of Independence--it seemed appropriate to bring in a collection of patriotic heroes, including:

The Shield, previously seen a few weeks ago, but not seen here because he's being blocked out in the photo above by...

The current Captain America, who took over after the original Cap was shot to death a couple of years ago (although Marvel Comics is, quite predictably, bringing the original back from the dead--as I told a coworker earlier today, "he's dead, but he's getting better"). This new Cap is actually Bucky Barnes, the original's sidekick who was long thought to be dead, but was actually a Russian assassin called the Winter Soldier who...OK, it's pretty damn complicated, but the current Captain America comic is one of the best-written on the market today, so go buy it or the series of trade paperback reprints of it. It's really good. Trust me.

There is also Steel, who also fought in World War II, but was created by DC Comics in the late '70s as a sort-of Captain America ripoff

The original Captain America stands in the middle, holding his old-school shield (as it appeared in Captain America Comics #1, but not thereafter--the comic book company that published the adventures of The Shield threatened to sue, so Cap's shield was changed to a round one with the second issue and has been round ever since).

Also carrying a shield (and a honkin' battleaxe) is Wonder Woman--technically not an American, but she wears the colors of our nation and also kicked Nazi ass in WW II, so she fits in perfectly.

Even Iron Man has been swept up in the patriotic fervor and is wearing red, white & blue armor (with coordinating shield).

On the end, we have American Maid from Fox's Tick cartoon. She cleans everything--including your clock!

And last, but far from least, we have, presiding over all, Uncle Sam himself, the living embodiment of the American spirit.

Happy Independence Day, everybody.

Hot Fun in the Summertime

I can't say I'm that much in love with summer.

I don't like hot weather. When it's cold, you can put on more layers, but there are only so many layers you can remove in summer before the cops tote you away. And since La Casa del Terror doesn't have air conditioning, I need to have two huge box fans trained on my torso to keep me from melting Margaret Hamilton-style until I'm just an Ed-shaped stain on the futon. (Yes. I know. Ew.)

Still, I prefer that the seasons act like they're supposed to. Winter should be cold and snowy. Fall should be brisk and leafy. Spring should be...okay, Chicago doesn't really have a spring, so it really shouldn't be anything at all. And summer? Should. Be. Hot.

But June was, for the most part, like April and May before it--overcast and cold, especially right on the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

Anyone who has spent any amount of time in the Windy City is intimately familiar with the phrase "cooler by the lake"; it was even the title of a novel by Larry Heinemann. When the wind comes out the east it blows across the lake, which takes a long time to heat up from winter's chill, especially at its center, where it runs several hundred feet deep. In July and August, this is a boon, providing natural air conditioning to much of the city. When the prevailing wind is out of the east through most of the first half of the year, however, the city remains under a blanket of gloom far longer than normal (if Chicago weather can truly be referred to as "normal").

On June 11, I walked out of the building where I work and saw my breath. That is so wrong.

Amazingly, though, on the first official day of summer, the weather decided to straighten out its act and act like it was June, not March. The sky cleared. The air warmed. Overcoats were put away. Bikinis and sun screen became useful again. Air conditioning in movie theaters became refreshing instead of brutal--and thus sought after by those of us who don't have AC (or lives). La Casa del Terror turned into a broiler once more, and I slept sans underwear. (Yes. I know. Ew. Again. To the Nth.)

And I couldn't have been more thrilled. About summer. Not the underwear thing.

So when coworkers bitch about the heat, I shrug. "It's summer," I tell them. "What were you expecting?" They don't usually have a lucid answer.

Now I do some of the things I most love to do. Like put Sly & the Family Stone's Greatest hits on the new CD player. Or take long walks down to the lake and back again. Or snap pictures of the sights of summer. (I used to do this a lot on Friday afternoons, back when my company had "summer hours"--work an extra half hour the first four days of the week, leave at noon on Friday. They don't have that this year, though. Dammit.) Or just sit out on the back porch with a Red Dog in hand and kill a couple Salems. Or go out to Navy Pier and watch the fireworks go off over Monroe Harbor (something I'll likely do tonight).

Basically, I just find ways to waste time. But what better time of year to do it, especially with so much free time to be wasted?

Have a happy and safe 4th of July, everybody.